Wait, I can't read Cuttlefish's new AAR? - Cribtop (J) vs CF (A)

[Cribtop]

April 16, 1943

Subs

I-22 misses a DD near Nadi. Her tubes are damaged in the return fire and the sub will make for home.

The enemy ships out of Dutch Harbor turn out to be an ASW TF that we will avoid.

SE Fleet

B-24s hit PM hard. We are moving an army Sentai out of China to try to help with an intercept of this force, but CF does a good job of switching targets and resting. It's thus hard to spring an ambush. Then again, other than pilot training the infrequent raids don't accomplish much, either.

In general, the signs of increased enemy activity in this AO are dropping off.

Satawal makes forts 3, and this tiny rock doesn't rate more than that. The engineer group here will move to the Marianas.

Burma

We sweep Meiktila again, but the enemy fighters have withdrawn.

The Helens bomb the smaller concentration of Allied troops at Magwe.

[Cribtop]

April 17, 1943

5th Fleet

Shikuka makes airfield 4.

SE Fleet

The 1st IJN Base Force completes its move from Formosa to Saipan. Time to put the Marianas in a higher state of readiness.

Southern Army

Sorong goes to airfield 3.

Burma

The Allies again hit our division at Cox's Bazar. They have ignored Akyab, and the level 6 field there is just about repaired (kind of the Allies to build it for us). We will send in Tojos and Nicks soon.

[Cribtop]

April 18, 1943

Subs

Shad duds on an xAK in the East China Sea.

SE Fleet

With a full moon, we send Bettys on a night raid at the over stacked field on Ndeni with good results. P-38s, Corsairs, PBYs and B-25s are destroyed or damaged in good numbers. This is the first official sighting of the gull winged devil, an ominous but inevitable development.

B-24s hit our garrison at Buna, which is interesting. Cribtop Intel wonders whether CF was reconning for a para raid here. If so, he finds the base well defended.

Southern Army

The engineer groups at Babar and Dobo each get their bases up to airfield 3.

Our army is marching on Derby and is now close enough to sortie significant IJN assets for a bombardment. The ships move from Singers to Soerabaja to await the correct moment. Included in the armada are the Timor Sea Squadron with 4 CAs and 6 DDs, Ishikawa Force with a CVE, Yamato and Mushashi plus 8 DDs, and South Seas Fleet with Nagato, Mutsu and 6 DDs. The massive firepower is designed to wreck the enemy force and destroy any supplies still in the units (enemy base supply was long ago bombed into oblivion) just ahead of a ground attack.

Burma

The enemy continue to bomb Cox's Bazar. The raids are increasing in size, but effectiveness is limited by terrain, forts and the now open supply line.

[Cribtop]

April 19, 1943

Subs

ASW harasses Tuna near Sasebo.

Southern Army

Glens spot what appears to be a good sized AO or TK convoy at Perth. How they evaded about 12 IJN subs with several Glen boats is a subject for the skippers' next performance evaluation. We doubt this is the sign of an enemy move, believing it is just a regular fuel shipment to Oz. However, we will keep our eyes open for anything and would frankly welcome an enemy offensive.

China

We continue to gather forces for an effort at Tienshui. Meanwhile, a lone KMT unit has circled around from Chungking and is approaching Kweiyang from the West. Interesting, but not a big issue.

Home Depot Building Report

Iwo Jima goes to forts 3, Ketoi Jima to forts 1, and Sinabang to forts 4.

Combined Fleet

Shokaku and Zuikaku will finish catching up on skipped upgrades around 21 April and their dive bomber groups have upgraded to Judys. They will sail to Truk along with upgraded DDs and a new CLAA. Akagi and Kaga will take a group of DDs needing upgrades to Kure for the next rotation as soon as Sho and Zui arrive.

[Capt. Harlock]

The enemy ships out of Dutch Harbor turn out to be an ASW TF that we will avoid.

Looks like that well dried up pretty fast. Nice play, though.

[Cribtop]

Yeah, I'm reconning again with the latest orders, but I think the warships are back to CONUS or visiting Davy Jones. Worth a shot.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

April 15, 1943

Subs

Sargo sinks an xAK near Gorong. CF is getting about a ship a day now that his torps work.

Thresher misses a DD sent to hunt her near Balikpapan.

A Glen spots enemy shipping fleeing Dutch Harbor as hoped. We will try to swarm them.

Burma

Rangoon goes to forts 6.

Allied 2E and 4E bomb our rear guard at Cox's Bazar.

How are you using air ASW? I've somehow managed to avoid a lot of losses by extensively using ASW air in combo with naval forces and routing. If there is night search followed by day search and ASW it can keep these subs lit up and you can vector ASW TFs toward them and convoys away. It's been fiddly, but after a while my opponent just stopped sending subs near the Chinese coast or into the densely packed bases of the DEI.

The period after about mid-43 to late 44 I lost only a handful of ships as I had very strong ASW pilots. I also train in low naval skill for them, and while some players think it doesn't matter, I'm fairly convinced now that it does. My Sally and Kate groups that have these pilots at 70 search, 70 ASW and 70 low naval get multiple hit messages a day in sub-infested waters and it appears by the reports I've sunk somewhere between 110-120 subs up to 10/44.

Not historical of course, and I'm sure there are those who think this takes too much away from the Allies. I think they have plenty as it is! [:)]

[Cribtop]

I'm a bit frustrated because I have trained ASW pilots covering the ocean in white with hunter groups equipped with good DCs following up in the whole area from Hong Kong to the Home Islands and around the Makassar Strait. For some reason, this arrangement has paid dividends in the waters around Singers but hasn't worked as well in these other areas. Probably just bad die rolls.

Fortunately, the losses have been small fry except for one medium sized tanker, but the trend line is worrying.

[Cribtop]

April 20, 1943

Subs

I-25 sinks an AM on ASW duty near Brisbane. Take that, hunters. I-9 misses a DD on similar duty near Perth. This area is alive with enemy sub hunters in at least 3 TFs, and I-164 misses DD Fletcher and is plunked by a DC in return. The sub will limp home.

5th Fleet

We spot several enemy DDs and APs at Adak. They appear to be dropping off a fresh LCU.

SE Fleet

Another night raid at Ndeni is ineffectively opposed by Corsairs on night CAP. The raid hits several planes on the ground.

Salamua makes forts 3.

Burma

We keep hammering at Meiktila with the IJAAF. 17th Army is still slogging toward the plains.

China

Looks like the KMT has begun a flanking harassment offensive aimed at forcing 23rd Army to break the partial investment of Kweiyang. We are expecting a decent slug of reinforcements to arrive in China in a few weeks from the pools, this could be good timing.

[Cribtop]

April 21, 1943

Subs

Grayback misses an escort near Rabaul. I-172 misses DD Fletcher near Perth.

IJN convoy escorts chase off Truant near Groot Natoena

Of more import, K XVII misses a DD escorting Nagato and Mutsu toward the big bombardment planned for Derby. Unfortunate that CF gets the free intel, but there is nothing he can do to stop the attack other than vector subs.

5th Fleet

B-26s bomb the airfield at Amchitka. Cribtop HQ fervently hopes CF commits his fleet up here to invade another island. Combined Fleet is ready if he does.

Logistics

We tried a trick yesterday, creating a massive convoy out of unused merchant shipping in Tokyo and setting Fusan as their homeport. This immediately pulled 62K of fuel from Port Arthur to Fusan. We hope that Port A will now pull a similar amount from Hong Kong. If it does, we can use this to push and pull fuel to Fusan, drain it with TKs to the Home Islands, then rinse and repeat.

[Cribtop]

April 22, 1943

Subs

We again DC Truant near Groot Natoena, this time with a hunter group. A Sally near Naha is damaged by flak from a USN sub. At least the aircrew tried to attack for once.

In a frustrating sequence from the Allied perspective, Balao fires a spread at a DD near Tokyo. One tube fails to launch entirely (a misfire message I'd never seen before), while the second fish duds.

5th Fleet

More raids by Marauders at Amchitka. We will try a CAP trap.

SE Fleet

A supply convoy is spotted by a floatplane near Buka, presumably a Cat out of Ndeni. This is the first evidence of Nav Search by the enemy in this area. Hmm.

Guam hits forts 1 and will move up rapidly as an engineer team has arrived to get to work on the inner perimeter.

Southern Army

IJAAF ground bombing ramps up at Derby. Our army is about 5 days out. About two days until we bombard with 4 BBs and 4 CAs.

Ruteng goes to airfield 3.

[FeurerKrieg]

We tried a trick yesterday, creating a massive convoy out of unused merchant shipping in Tokyo and setting Fusan as their homeport. This immediately pulled 62K of fuel from Port Arthur to Fusan. We hope that Port A will now pull a similar amount from Hong Kong. If it does, we can use this to push and pull fuel to Fusan, drain it with TKs to the Home Islands, then rinse and repeat.

Hi CF - When you did this, are you saying that the convoy was still located in Tokyo and the fuel moved to Fusan? Or did the fuel move once the convoy pulled in to port at Fusan? I'm always doing what I can to manipulated fuel/supply/resource/oil movements and this sounds like a nice one to add to my list.

[Cribtop]

The convoy never left Tokyo Bay. I set destination Tokyo with no retirement allowed and homeport Fusan. It sort of worked, but so far Fusan has pulled fuel and Port Arthur is left begging. Unless that changes, I'll have to abandon the experiment.

[FeurerKrieg]

Unless of course you don't need any fuel in PA.

[Cribtop]

Good point. After the trick, we still had around 12K fuel in PA. That was an orange number, but maybe it would refill over time. Any thoughts on this from our logistics gurus?

[PaxMondo]

Resource/fuel/oil etc movement has a lot of inertia ... it changes real slowly and you have to keep the demand in place for quite a while to see effect. Get Fusan built up as big as you can, that helps. I start pulling from Fusan on Dec 7, 1941. Because of that, I can pull from Singapore when I clear a path. You're starting much later, and the flow will resist changing direction. However, if you are persistent about maintaining the demand it should happen. My guess: several weeks before you will see results. Don't know if pulsing will help any or not.

[btbw]

How much resources (especially oil or fuel) will be lost via Sing-Fusan route?

[Cribtop]

Good points. I don't know how much would be lost, I'm mostly experimenting for the day when the convoys shut down. My basic problem is that I improved Hong Kong to a level 9 port, so things tend to stay there rather than flowing on to Port A or Fusan. Fusan is level 8 but that's as high as it goes. My Singers convoys use HK as a dump point, then other ships make the run to Japan. This facilitates sub avoidance and allows for simpler routes.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Good points. I don't know how much would be lost, I'm mostly experimenting for the day when the convoys shut down. My basic problem is that I improved Hong Kong to a level 9 port, so things tend to stay there rather than flowing on to Port A or Fusan. Fusan is level 8 but that's as high as it goes. My Singers convoys use HK as a dump point, then other ships make the run to Japan. This facilitates sub avoidance and allows for simpler routes.

Yep, building HK up presents an impediment. A large one. In my testing, I was only able to overcome it 50% of the time at best ... You may need to build up Shanghai and see if you can't get it there ... no Fusan, but better than HK ....

[Cribtop]

April 23, 1943

A calm before the storm turn.

Subs

No contacts for either side. Rare these days.

5th Fleet

We LRCAP Amchitka with some Oscar IIs and the Marauders oblige. It takes a long combat for the Oscar pea shooters to start getting kills, but once they do, they end up destroying six of nine enemy bombers. Nice.

Southern Army

Our ground forces enter the hex SE of Derby today. Tomorrow we will bombard the place, hopefully into the stone ages.

Other

Lots of airfields improve: Ominato 6, Iwo Jima 1, Pisanuloke 2, Kavieng 3.

Port Arthur re-fills with fuel. Game on at Fusan!